If you'd care to share your thoughts and opinions on any films you've seen recently, with a view to bringing them to the attention of likeminded folk who might be interested, then post them up here. Could be a brief yay or nay type review, or as long as you like. And I suppose spoiler warnings should be out in force where needed.

On the flip, I guess people could also ask here about specific films they haven't seen but others might have. It doesn't have to be a film you liked either, negative reactions can be as useful as positive.

similar in way to adaptation but stranger than fiction was well written with better acting. it also didn't seemed to be forced as adaptation was. it was clever. it was different seeing will ferrel in a more serious role. i was surprised by his acting. done well all around.

For almost 30 minutes of this film I was tempted to give up and switch it off. The initial premise is a guy returning to his home town in New Zealand and family from years as a wartime photographer/journalist. You can tell all is not quite right, and he's depressed etc, but for quite a while you are left under the illusion that the entire film is going to be purely centred around him and his relatively minor emotional issues (ran out on old girlfriend, job stress etc). I persevered, and fuck was it worth it. The film folds out into a whole lot more than your typical family drama, this is Drama with a capital D. Totally engrossing, compelling and very moving. The main guy UK folk might remember from Spooks, that spy drama series. I always thought he was really wooden in that, and for a while I thought that here too, but in the end it is a really amazing and believable performance, as are the rest. You almost forget it's actors you're watching.

Kerr did you get the mega box 5 DVD set? I've been OBSESSED with that for a few weeks now trying to get through the entire thing. The documentary stuff is SUPER in depth. Haven't got to the workprint version of it though.

No country.. (should win best picture)
before the devil knows you're dead
michael clayton
assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford (very slow but good)
joshua (makes you want to beat up the kid in it)
control (not the best movie but i'm a big jd fan and it was shot well)

hot fuzz was by far my favorite comedy.

I think i would have liked american gangster better if it wasn't based on a true story. I didn't care for the ending but as it is true it isn't like they could change it much.

A young boy lives in a small floating temple on a beautiful lake, together with an elderly master who teaches him the ways of the Buddha. Years later the boy, now a young man, experiences his sexual awakening with a girl who has come to the temple to be healed by the master. The youth runs away to the outside world but his lust turns his life into hell, so he returns to the lake temple to find spiritual enlightenment.

Great film that proves once again that Kim Ki-Duk is one of the best directors going today. While Buddhism is used as a vehicle to drive the film the film is actually about life and the struggles in it.

Like in many of his films there isn't much speaking but that is also the power of Kim's films ... bodylanguage and facial expressions say more than words ever will.

And I didn't even mention the beautiful images ...!!!

Quote:

Dead Man is the story of a young man's journey, both physically and spiritually, into very unfamiliar terrain. William Blake travels to the extreme western frontiers of America sometime in the 2nd half of the 19th century. Lost and badly wounded, he encounters a very odd, outcast Native American, named "Nobody," who believes Blake is actually the dead English poet of the same name. The story, with Nobody's help, leads William Blake through situations that are in turn comical and violent. Contrary to his nature, circumstances transform Blake into a hunted outlaw, a killer, and a man whose physical existence is slowly slipping away. Thrown into a world that is cruel and chaotic, his eyes are opened to the fragility that defines the realm of the living. It is as though he passes through the surface of a mirror, and emerges into a previously-unknown world that exists on the other side.

This my first time opening this thread. I'm kind of in a rush so I just skipped over the first few posts and didn't read what they said. I hope you guys have been watching some great movies!

Anyway, I watched The Fountain last night. What a horrendous movie that was! Holy shit... this Darren Aronofsky guy obviously has some kind of aspiration to be Tarkovsky, and boy does he fuck it up bad. Hugh Jackman is a mediocre actor at best, and this proved it beyond a doubt. Seeing him fret and blubber for 90 minutes straight was torturous. I don't know what it is with actors trying too hard to cry convincingly... it always makes me laugh. In this movie it was like the director deliberately had Mr. Jackman punctuate his sobbing with outbursts of high pitched whimpers. It was pretty funny at times to watch the poorly performed crying but I don't think that was the intent of the movie.

Hey Fish - you liked Hot Fuzz? I tried to watch it but couldn't finish it, and from what I saw I didn't laugh once. I didn't get the humour at all. It seemed like they were trying to be what they were supposed to be satirizing rather than properly satirizing it. It's probably because I find the big Michael Bay/Simon West action movie style so vacuous that there isn't enough substance to make fun of in the first place. With Hot Fuzz it felt like you would have to have paid attention to this mass market garbage cinema in the first place to understand what is supposed to be funny.

it felt like you would have to have paid attention to this mass market garbage cinema in the first place to understand what is supposed to be funny.

I agree with this. but i pretty much will watch anything so i've seen all the generic action flicks hollywood has to offer. you missed all of the crazy action if you didn't make it through the movie but it sounds like you may not have liked that anyways. what did you think of shawn of the dead?

as for the fountain, i was very very disappointed in it after loving pi and requiem. then i read up on the flick and all the trouble they had making it:

"Originally to be filmed in 2002 on a budget of $70 million with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in the lead, The Fountain shut down production as a result of Pitt's departure. Aronofsky was able to resurrect the project in 2005 with half the budget. The director incorporated visual effects into The Fountain by using minimal computer-generated imagery. He reduced the use of computers by using inexpensive footage provided by a macro-photographer."

so i'm giving aronofsky the benefit of the doubt on this one. and yeah jackman was a bad decision for sure. The only movie i didn't hate him in was the prestige. and that was only because i loved everything else about the movie so much.

Shaun of the Dead was great - the first time I saw it. Because it was the first time I'd seen these 2 guys doing their shtick. When I saw it again recently I thought it far too cute for its own good, all this mushy stuff about loving your mum and the hipster pal theme and the broken hearted guy yearning for his girlfriend and so on. I dunno... that's all endearing cliche fluff that doesn't have any relevance whatsoever to the horror material being addressed.

I saw that Diary of the Dead got some good reviews... will be curious to see that one for sure.

The only movie i didn't hate him in was the prestige. and that was only because i loved everything else about the movie so much.

Really? I thought The Prestige was a load of utter nonsense, and pretty much all the performances annoyed me to some degree. The "astonishing payoff" at the end that was so hyped was clever but didn't make up for the rest. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood at the time...

Anyway, I watched The Fountain last night. What a horrendous movie that was! Holy shit... this Darren Aronofsky guy obviously has some kind of aspiration to be Tarkovsky, and boy does he fuck it up bad.

oohhh thnx god! so i am not the only 1 who hated that movie. you know what man, some friends of mine were like "you didnt get the film, it was so deep" hahaha - no way!

and yes - hot fuzz, shaun of the dead, prestige... i also liked em all!!

What's this Bladerunny carrying-on about then? It was an alright film, that car chase with the cyborg was pretty exciting and yeah, it was the 80's, but I just can't take Arnie's one-liners seriously anymore.

What's this Bladerunny carrying-on about then? It was an alright film, that car chase with the cyborg was pretty exciting and yeah, it was the 80's, but I just can't take Arnie's one-liners seriously anymore.

AHEM!!! Shut it yah replicant Batty boy.

elrrek wrote:

TIM knows better, else we shall declare him a replicant and refer to him henceforth as "Batty Boy".

Wasn't Harrison Ford's character named Private Arnie in Blade Runner? Didn't he say that line about crime being a disease and him being the cure before blowing away that guy who played the mayor in Deadwood?

i dont wanna get all popular n commercial here but what tv series u watch? i know some of you guys like six feet under, deadwood, 24 (i am not gonna name the fans!) and battle star galactica.

anymore?

what about lost, heroes, dexter, nip tuck or even "how i met your mother?"

The Wire season 5 just started.

That's about as good as it gets.

I wanted to get into Deadwood, but was too wrapped up in the stylized Italian Westerns at the time to enjoy a dose of something i'm guessing is closer the reality of the time period. No one in Deadwood seems to return from the dead, hide gattling guns in coffins or pianos, etc.